Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2006 September 19

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September 19

Software for translations of huge lists of vocabulary

Hi. In Wiktionary one can find huge lists of words in, for example, German; but no translation is given next to each word and translating by hand using a software such as Babylon would need unlimited time, I guess. How could one build an application to do so (or whatever method of getting around manual translation)? Thanks.

I'm not sure what you want to do: translate a list of words on Wiktionary from German to English? Why not use Google Language Tools? Paste the Wiktionary URL of the list of words and Google will translate as many as it can. --Canley 01:02, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Thank you fella, didn't know google would work that well here ;)

Home WiFi Networks

I'm too damn busy to figure it out for myself, and it should be too simple to justify paying someone to do it for me, so I'm asking here: I want to network my desktop, my laptop and my PDA at home. The PDA runs windows mobile and the PCs are both XP. I use a wireless ADSL modem (siemens speedstream 6250) for my broadband access with the desktop, via a USB WiFI dongle thingy (Netgear WG111). I'm told it should be a simple matter of using the wireless connection doodad on the laptop and the PDA's Wifi thing (its an O2 XDA Atom) to have them both be able to see the ADSL modem as a wifi router and then have all 3 of them talk happily together, share files, print, access the net etc - without ethernet cables etc. So how do I do it? Using the network wizard on the PCs tells me a network cable is unplugged on both PCs - (there is no cable so there's nothing to be unplugged!), and I've got no clue what the PDAs trying to tell me. Any help will be most appreciated. Mattopaedia ^talkto_me04:25, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm not entirely sure you can manage this without a dedicated WiFi router. Are you using the Network Setup Wizard or the Wireless Network Setup Wizard? If that doesn't do it, try setting up an "ad-hoc" connection with your wireless setup/configuration software on the PC with the ADSL connection. The other devices should be able to see it and connect: if not, it's often a problem with your firewall, if you've got one running. If you can't get it to work, it's probably a lot less hassle in the long run to get a dedicated wifi router. Sum0 14:29, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I think the solution is $$$. The speedstream 6250 is a WiFi router and ADSL modem (so acts as a gateway), and can supposedly support up to 11 devices (4 ethernet, 7 wireless) if I'm to believe what I'm told. I've read around a bit since making this post and found some bloggers who believe the hardware is junk, and document multiple problems related to the device acknowledging wireless devices other than the WG111. They say the ethernet bit works fine, BUT I DON'T WANT WIRES! I tried all your suggestions - both wizards, the ad-hoc connection, configuring the gateway for shared access and managed to lose my internet access temporarily - but no other device saw the network (other than the desktop). Oh well... thanks anyhow. Mattopaedia 13:59, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Running a home server and virtualisation

Hi, I am about to purchase a home server, with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2x512MB of RAM and 3x320GB HDD. I would like to use it for a centralised storage for all my media files as well as my documents, and running several different servers. I have heard of virtualisation, and have got a copy of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. I am wondering, for instance, if I make a virtual machine, and make it a web server, how would I access it externally? (over the internet or network). Is it possible to set a DMZ (de-militarised zone)for a virtual machine from my router? Or port forward to a virtual machine? Also, what would be the best (and free) FTP Server program available, that offers security and is easy to use? I was also wondering if it would be a good idea to run RAID5, with my three HDDs and how much more chance of data corruption would I get if I were to use RAID0(striping)? Finally, though this is probably this is a stupid question, can I use a Cat5e cable to connect a computer with a Gigabit ethernet port to a switch that only supports up to Fast Ethernet (100MB/s)? Or would I need a 10/100 Ethernet card? Any answers would appreciated, as I am getting this system in just a few days. Thanks, Ronaldh 05:02, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

I'll take a couple.

• In terms of virtualization, you can do NAT networking, where your machine behaves like a private router and all the virtual machines get a private IP and masquerade through your computer. If you do bridged networking, the VM will get its own MAC address, so whatever DHCP server you have running on your network (including the server machine itself) will assign a separate IP address to the VM. You can then port forward on your router.
• RAID0 is just going to make your 3 hard drives appear as one big 960GB disc. You'll get better performance, as writes can be scattered across drives in parallel, but if one drive fails, that's it. With RAID5, if a drive fails, you can shut down, replace the drive, start back up and get back on the go (after replication, obviously). You'll have less available space, but still get some of the performance, and be able to recover from a single failed drive. You might also look into hot swapping if you want that extra uptime. A lot of mobos come with built-in RAID support (many with hot swapping capabilities), and while it's not true hardware RAID (a la expansion card), you can still take advantage of the hot swap capabilities if it's set up right. You'll need to depend on the drivers, however. You might be safe in Windows, but with all the different faux-RAID motherboard chips, you might not get the support you need in Linux.
• IIRC cat5e can be used to service 1gbit over short distances (one end of the room to the other I guess). If your switch only takes 100mbit, then the gbit port will drop down to the same speed. No need for an additional 100mbit network card. HTH. --Silvaran 05:34, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

What exactly does HDCP do?

I took a look at the article on it, and a few other websites, but I'm still confused. HDCP is supposed to end piracy? I don't see why current piracy methods wouldn't work with it. Rip blu-ray or hd-dvd to a hard drive, then upload those files to the internet. Someone else downloads them and views them. What am I not understanding here?

The trick is that to read a HDCP-protected disk you need to give the DVD disk drive a password. And only licensed display devices have those passwords. So you can't simply make a bit-by-bit copy of the disk because your ripping program can't get the raw data out of the DVD drive; the drive refuses to give any data from a HDCP disk without a password. New televisions and computer graphics cards will have passwords, allowing them to get protected data. Also, a ripping program can't eavesdrop between the DVD player and the graphics card because the data stream is encrypted; the graphics card decrypts the image only just before painting the pixels on the screen. No doubt someone will defeat the protection eventually (hack the firmware of a graphics card or whatever) but at least for some time it should prevent casual ripping. High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection has the gory details. Weregerbil 12:17, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

GOOGLE EARTH AND SKETCHUP

Right i say i have created a model using google sketch up, and now i want to put it onto my version of google earth, just to personalise it. I know how to get it onto google earth but how do i choose where it goes??? Also how do you keep it there for when i go on google earth again. Do you just save the image (File; save: save image)???

thanx, --William dady 11:17, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

flash drives

Can you please tell me how to access a flash drive? I have a flash drive attached to a usb port on my computer with a file I need to download and I don't know how to access the drive. Thank you for any help you can give.

First, you have to be root. Then, create a directory to mount it to, such as "/mnt/flash". Then, you have to have to know which usb device it is. Try /dev/usb1, /dev/usb2... I've also seen /dev/media1 used. Finally, mount it: mount /dev/usb1 /mnt/flash.

Now, if you aren't using Unix/Linux, perhaps it is a good idea to mention what Operating System you are using. --Kainaw ^(talk) 13:27, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Modern linux(tm) will usually tack the drive on to the scsi namespace, in /dev/sd[a,b,c,d][1,2,3]... Although they also tend to automatically mount the drive to a newly created dir in /media or /mnt, so its often not necessary to know the /dev location. --Jmeden2000 15:13, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

...if you're using a recent version of Windows like XP, it will appear as "Removable Drive" under My Computer. With Windows 98 and previous versions, you may have more trouble getting it to work. Sum0 14:18, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

You may need to download a driver for it, too. StuRat 22:23, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

JUST GO ON 'START', 'MY COMPUTER' AND THEN CLICK ON THE FLASH DRIVE ICON (IT IS 'E', AS IN FLOPPY IS 'A' AND CD'S ARE 'D')

extending internet cable

can you get anything to extend the yellow internet cable? thanks --86.142.208.253 17:43, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

There is no such thing as an "internet cable". What kind of cable is it? RJ45? Cat5? USB? --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:59, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

What kind of a cable? "Yellow" doesn't quite nail it down. Perhaps you mean a Cat5, the one that has RJ45's at the ends? Buy a longer cable. You can also ask your local computer shop for female/female RJ45 adapters (aka Cat5 couplers) but it's easier to buy a longer cable. Weregerbil 19:07, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

I suspect they mean an Ethernet cable. They are frequently yellow. StuRat 22:25, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

TRY LOOKING IN THE ARGOS CATALOGUE OR SPECIALIST COMPUTEING RETAILERS, EG PC WORLD, BELKIN, IBM ETC.

IP Routing

Hi, all...

Does anyone know what happens when a static IP route is added to a routing table, even if there is no direct connection to the gateway's network? For example, let's say that I'm attached to the 192.168.0.x/255.255.255.0 network, and a NAT (192.168.0.1) handles the traffic at the border:

Me(192.168.0.4) <--[cloud of 192.168.0.x]--> NAT(192.168.0.1, 10.1.1.6) <--[cloud of 10.x.x.x]--> NAT(10.0.0.1, external IP: 66.230.200.19) <--[cloud of "Real Internet"]--> backbone gateway, (3.4.5.6) <--> (host / destination 116.2.4.8)

(obviously, most of these IP addresses are made up.)

So, what happens if I add a static route for 116.2.4.8/255.255.255.255 using gateway 3.4.5.6? Does it tunnel on top of 192.168.0.1? If not, how can I achieve something like this? (In short, it'd be bypassing the dynamic routing on 192.168.0.1, the local NAT, and doing the routing locally.)

I appreciate any help I can get.

Update:

I think that the wording that I used may be unclear. To summarize:

How can I locally manage the route that my computer's packets use for a specific TCP/IP or UDP/IP connection?

Jdstroy 19:32, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Your device should refuse to let you do something as foolish as assign a gateway beyond the local network. The whole point of IP routing is to avoid the need for such things. The simple answer is that you cannot put more than one destination address on a packet, so if you send it to your local gateway bound for an off-network address, it can only do its default action (which is NAT in your case). You might accomplish it with a special exception on your router. --Jmeden2000 15:09, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Jmeden2000, thanks for the response. I'm actually working on a Microsoft Windows XP computer that is connected as a client to the network. So, there isn't a way for me to specify the route? (The issue is that the border Cisco router has a few invalid routes that I would like to override.) Jdstroy 19:29, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Downloading Wikipedia

I'm having some trouble trying to download the wikipedia database. I'm trying to download the text version of the latest articles. I don't know what program i need in order to download the material, or what program i need to setup a usable version of wikipedia offline after i get the material downloaded. I tried to download the text version of the articles at this link: [1] but it only downloaded a 2kb file which my computer didn't recognize and wasn't able to look up. Is this the right file for text only?, and if so, how do i download it.

I had read a Make DIY magazine vol 2 article[2](this is the link to the article but you need to have a subscription to read it) from august 2005 that gave step-by-step instructions on how to make a portable encyclopedia using wikipedia and something like a palm pilot. The article is in depth on how to modify the electronic device,(how to add more memory, what software you need to tranfer files from your computer, etc), but it just glosses over how to download wikipedia, basically saying "then i downloaded wikipedia". The article had mentioned MySQL, and Apache but didn't give any details about them. From the wikipedia database download page it mentioned that SQL would no longer be supported, I went to Apache where they have tons of programs and code available to download but i have no idea what any of it does, or what specific program i need. Would MediaWiki work for something like that?

download.wikimedia.org/enwiki/latest/

Can anyone expand on how to download Wikipedia here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download

Any information anyone has about this would be great.

-thanks

You will need a webserver, PHP-enabled, a database backing (MySQL, I believe), and the MediaWiki software, along with these data files that you mentioned. See: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Installation

Advised is apache2, MySQL stable, PHP, and the pages-articles file.

I hope I didn't specify something incorrectly. But I'm trying to do this as quickly as possible. I hope it helps. Jdstroy 20:00, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

thanks for the reply jdstroy, i think mediawiki might not be what i'm looking for as i'm not looking to post an editable wiki, and don't have a server, i was just looking to set up an offline wikipedia/encyclopedia.

i just did a search at http://makezine.com/ ,they published the magazine the article was in, and came up with a similar article, this link is for an ipod, http://encyclopodia.sourceforge.net/en/index.html

but i don't need the encyclopedia to be portable, just basic instructions on how to download the database, and what program i need to use the material on my computer.

You might want to see Wikipedia:Reference desk archive/Computing/2006 August 31#Downloading Wikipedia Robmods 21:48, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

I see. It would be more like a snapshot of Wikipedia, then, I presume? I searched Make, and I saw the reference to the article as well, but there was no fulltext (as you wouldn't be here if there was, right?). I'm afraid that I don't know of anything else that can actually work with the database dumps of Wikipedia to show you the latest pages, or generate the latest pages, only. ... The best I can offer is running a local copy / mirror of Wikipedia, and then locking it from changes. Jdstroy 00:17, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Hi, you might like to try using Webaroo, and download the wikipedia web-pack from that. You can grab webaroo from www.webaroo.com and it is a program used to download web-sites, and their own 'web-packs'. I have been using it for several months now, and it features many options, such as exporting it to a PDA etc. You will need a good connecion to download the wikipedia web-pack though - it's about 5.5GB! Ronaldh 01:42, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Splitting of audio file

I would like to split a very long audio file into multiple parts of a given length. That is, I do not wish to manually set the break points, but have the program split it into chunks of, say, 15 seconds. What tools (preferably command line) are there to accomplish this? —Bromskloss 21:06, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

SoX. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:16, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip, but I couldn't find the possibility to do what I wanted in its documentation. However, mp3split seems to be capable of it. Contrary to its name, it claims to handle also Ogg files (Ogg Vorbis, pehaps they mean?). —Bromskloss 22:18, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Um, SoX can do it, in combination with a shell script, or maybe you could write a short Perl script that repeatedly invokes SoX to do the job. --Robert Merkel 06:09, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

buying a pre-existing domain

Has anyone ever bought a domain from someone who has one for sale? There is a domain that I'd like to use but someone has already squatted on it and they're looking for offers. How much would they typically be looking for? How shady (for lack of a better word) is this? What are some considerations to make? Dismas|^(talk) 21:26, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

It's pretty shady, but no worse than those who buy land or anything else on speculation. StuRat 22:33, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Twice, clients of mine have had domain names stolen. It didn't expire. They just tricked Network Solutions into transferring the domain name. One was in San Diego. He asked for $2,000 to give the domain name back. The other was in New Orleans. He asked for $6,000 to give the domain name back. So, if you are dealing with a squatter, expect to pay thousands of dollars. --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:01, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I would expect them to change the price based on what they perceive as your ability and willingness to pay. Obviously most private users aren't going to spend thousands for a domain name, whereas some corporations might even be willing to pay millions for the right domain name. StuRat 11:10, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I personally like that they ask for thousands of dollars because my attitude both times was that I was willing to spend twice as much as they asked for to make them give the domain name back for free. It worked both times. I don't care about the money. I only care about the punishment. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:05, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Ghetto computer cooling

I recently read an article about computer modding here where one of the steps mentioned includes covering the side holes/vents on a computer with foil (aluminium) tape to enhance front to back airflow. I was wondering if I were to cover all the vent holes on my computer (excluding the ones in front of the fan of course) if this would give me a cooler computer. (temperature-wise) For example, my computer has 3 general spaces for venting, a circular grill for the fan in the back, a second slightly smaller circular grill under that one, (no fan) and then a rectangular grill area near the bottom of my case on the front. If I were to cover the last two of those areas, what would be the difference in temperature inside my computer? - Ridge Racer 23:18, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

This sounds like a very bad idea to me. Some safer ways to increase cooling are to leave the cover off the computer and/or point a fan at it. Are you sure you really need additional cooling ? StuRat 11:08, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, I don't need the additional cooling, but I thought it would be nice to try a cheap mod to boost my cooling. Why do you say to take off the cover? Once I left my cover off for about an hour and the floppy stopped working, due to overheating. - Ridge Racer 11:45, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

The combination "take the cover off" and "point a fan at it" is a good way to cool off the computer. Just taking the cover off will make things worse

.

Another mod I did when I was working in a hot office: I used ductwork to redirect the AC register straight into the back of my computer. The case always stayed nice and cold. I assume the components were cool as well. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:08, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I suppose my "and/or" was a bit vague, let me restate things:

• "Either point an external fan at the computer with the cover still on, or, for additional cooling, point an external fan at the computer with the cover removed." StuRat 06:14, 21 September 2006 (UTC)